Geely becomes Daimler’s largest shareholder with $9 billion stake

Automaker Daimler has a new largest shareholder – Geely Automotive chairman Li Shufu. The Geely stake, worth an estimated $9 billion, should give the Chinese automotive giant more leverage when trying to work out cross-company tech arrangements with Daimler and its sub brands including Mercedes-Benz.

Daimler is already partnered up with a major automotive concern in China – BAIC, with which it has a joint venture to produce vehicles for the country. But Geely has been pursuing cooperation with the German auto giant for some time now, specifically around autonomous driving and EVs.

This will give the company a very good bargaining position, but it’s too early to tell whether it means more formal partnerships and collaboration agreements are already on the way. Geely is also the owner of Volvo, which it acquired from Ford in 2010.